Statistics, Schmastistics! XiTi Monitor "forgets" about countries where Opera does well?
Thursday, 22. November 2007, 09:08:03
In its "Browsers barometer" for september 2007, XiTi Monitor points to Firefox usage in Europe stabilizing. Opera isn't mentioned at all, but back in July, they referred to Opera with a single sentence:
What's interesting if you look at the stats is that a certain European country where Opera is doing rather well is missing. Where is Russia?
People may not be aware of this, but Opera is doing pretty well in Russia. In fact, some Russian stats suggest that Opera may have more users than Firefox (July stats). Whether this is the case or not is not that important (and as we know, browser stats are highly unreliable), but it is rather interesting that this particular country is left out, as if it wasn't part of Europe at all!
Rather than malicious intent on XiTi Monitor's part, my guess is that the data they are using is as crappy as everyone else's, and that they are based purely on sites that choose to use their services. And no one in Russia does, apparently. The same goes for a few other countries, according to the blanks on their map (including Iceland, our CEO's country of origin). If I am not mistaken, Opera does rather well in Belarus as well, and some stats pointed to more Opera users than Firefox users over there.
What I don't get is how XiTi Monitor can refer to "browser usage in Europe" when they are probably just referring to a tiny subset of European sites that use their services. So not only are their browser stats misleading (like everyone else's), but their claims are as well.
Opera arrives in 3rd, far behind Firefox, with a visit share of 3.5%.
What's interesting if you look at the stats is that a certain European country where Opera is doing rather well is missing. Where is Russia?
People may not be aware of this, but Opera is doing pretty well in Russia. In fact, some Russian stats suggest that Opera may have more users than Firefox (July stats). Whether this is the case or not is not that important (and as we know, browser stats are highly unreliable), but it is rather interesting that this particular country is left out, as if it wasn't part of Europe at all!
Rather than malicious intent on XiTi Monitor's part, my guess is that the data they are using is as crappy as everyone else's, and that they are based purely on sites that choose to use their services. And no one in Russia does, apparently. The same goes for a few other countries, according to the blanks on their map (including Iceland, our CEO's country of origin). If I am not mistaken, Opera does rather well in Belarus as well, and some stats pointed to more Opera users than Firefox users over there.
What I don't get is how XiTi Monitor can refer to "browser usage in Europe" when they are probably just referring to a tiny subset of European sites that use their services. So not only are their browser stats misleading (like everyone else's), but their claims are as well.
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